This should be the purpose of the heart:
not to be trapped by convention,
nor to be concerned with adornments;
not to be thoughtless in treating others,
nor to be in opposition to the crowd;
to want the whole world to live in peace and balance
for the sake of the people’s unity,
to look to the needs of others as well as yourself.
This should be the purpose of the heart and this is what the ancient ones considered to be the Tao’s way. Sung Chien and Yin Wen heard of these ideas and were pleased. They made their hats in the shape of Hua Mountain as their distinguishing feature. In their intercourse with all forms of life, they accepted difference as given. They discoursed upon the nature of the heart and they sought a unity proceeding from the heart. By such concerns they sought to unite everyone in joyfulness and to harmonize all within the boundaries of the oceans. Their greatest desire was to see this achieved everywhere, by their efforts. They could face insults and not be disturbed; they struggled to save the people from warfare; they aimed to prevent aggression and to silence arms and thus to deliver future generations from violence. In pursuit of such ideals, they walked across the whole world, advising the high and teaching the low, and even though the world would not listen, they just continued even more strongly and would not give up. So it is said that high and low were tired of seeing them, but they never gave up putting themselves forward.
Indeed, this is so, but they did too much for others and too little for themselves, saying, ‘All that we ask and need is five pints of rice and this will suffice.’ It is inconceivable that the Master had enough by this means. Even though the followers were hungry, they never forgot the whole of the world, persevering day and night without ceasing, saying, ‘We have to take care to preserve lives!’ What wonderful aims these masters have for their generation! They say, ‘The nobleman does not scrutinize others too harshly, nor does he take from others to adorn himself.’ If an idea does not benefit the world, then they see that it’s not worth struggling with. They see banning aggression and ridding the world of violence as their major area of concern, and see diminishing their own desires and feelings as an internal goal. They sought this both on a grand scale and a small scale, both in subtle things and in the more common way, and when they had perfected this, they stood tall.
This was the way of the ancient one who followed the Tao:
public-spirited and completely non-partisan,
flexible and not fixed upon one idea,
open-minded and without a guide,
following others without a second thought,
not casting anxious glances,
not using knowledge to make plots,
not choosing one thing rather than another,
instead going with all:
this was the way of the ancient one who followed the Tao.
Peng Meng, Tien Pien and Shen Tao123 heard of these ideas and were delighted. They believed that all the various forms of life are held in the Tao. They said, ‘Heaven can overarch but not support; Earth can support but not overarch; the great Tao embraces all but cannot distinguish between them. We conclude that all forms of life have that which they can do and that which they cannot do. It is said, if you select, you abandon comprehensibility; if you contrast, then you lose perfection. But the Tao leaves out nothing whatsoever.’
So it was that Shen Tao put aside knowledge and any concern for himself, went where he could not avoid going, seeking always to be without interest and pure in all that he did, seeing this as being true to the Tao, and saying that understanding is not understanding, thus viewing knowledge as dangerous and struggling to be rid of it. He was without ambition and so he was carefree, taking no responsibility and scorning those in the world who praised the worthy. Drifting and unconcerned, he did nothing and laughed at those whom the world saw as sages. Cutting corners, smoothing the rough, he flowed and twisted with all things. He ignored right and wrong and simply worked at avoiding trouble. Having nothing to gain from knowledge or reflection, and with no understanding of what was going on, he went through life with a lofty ease and disregard. He walked only when he was pushed, and only started when he was forced to. He was like a whirlwind, like a feather spinning round and round, like the turning of a grindstone. He had integrity, he was without any wrong, without failure or excess, whether in action or in stillness. How was this possible? Those who are without knowledge are free from the tribulations of self-promotion, from the entrapment that arises from working with knowledge. Whether moving or resting, he never left the proper path, and throughout his life was never praised. I would like to be one without knowledge, not trapped in the teachings of a sage. Such people, like the very earth itself, never lose the Tao. People in positions of authority laughed at him together, saying, ‘Shen Tao’s Tao is not for the living but is the way for those who are already dead, which is why they are so odd.’
Tien Pien was the same, for he studied under Peng Meng and understood that one should not make distinctions. Peng Meng’s master said, ‘The Tao of the scholars of old taught that nothing is right and nothing is wrong. Their essence was like the wind; how can it be expressed in words?’ But he was always opposed to the views of others, never seeing things as they saw them, and he was prone to cut corners. What they named the Tao he said was not the Tao, and what was called right he
